The JTC charges that Adams, while represented by counsel, frequently called Brennan’s office concerning her case, and persisted in doing so after being advised that such contact was inappropriate. The JTC’s complaint alleges Adams, while under oath, denied she had made the calls.

The JTC further alleges that Adams forged her former attorney’s name on a motion and brief to set aside or modify Brennan’s judgment of divorce.

Adams is also charged with making false statements to the JTC about the matter.

The complaint alleges that Adams violated the Judicial Code of Conduct, several court rules and Michigan’s perjury statute.

Miller will hear evidence and prepare a report for the JTC. The JTC, after a hearing, can then decide to dismiss the complaint or recommend that the Michigan Supreme Court impose one of several forms of discipline such as public censure, a suspension or removal from office.

A non-partisan task force assembled nearly a year and a half ago by Michigan Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Kelly has come up with a list of recommendations to make the judicial selection process less expensive and more transparent.

Among the reforms on the list of recommendations is a constitutional amendment to require gubernatorial appointment of state Supreme Court justices using either the federal executive appointment model, or Arizona’s selection commission model.

Kelly said that was one of the stickier issues, and one that did not garner consensus of the entire task force.

“The majority of the task force did support it,” she said. “But the majority and the minority felt it was important to not make it one of the consensus recommendations.”

So what does that mean? It means there are other issues the task force would like to focus on.

Also on the list of recommendations (which did have consensus agreement) :

Public disclosure of all judicial campaign spending

The implementation of an open primary system, rather than a partisan nomination system

Requiring the Secretary of State to produce a voter education guide with information about judicial candidates

A Supreme Court campaign oversight committee, which would check the factual claims in political advertisements and denounce those that are false and misleading.

The implementation of a screening commission to help the governor fill judicial vacancies.

The elimination of the age-70 ceiling on judicial candidates

A minority of task force members also felt that public financing of judicial races should be recommended, but in the end, that idea failed to get support.

The reason, ironically, is that since Citizens United, there has been so much money from third parties flowing into political advertising. Candidate committees already only spend a small fraction of the total amount spent on political advertising.

Kelly said that many on the task force felt that the committees need to be able to at least try to get candidate-approved (and hopefully truthful and respectable) advertisements out to the public to combat all the secret third-party, mostly negative and often untrue, messages.

Some of the items on the list of recommendations could be implemented quickly and easily, without a constitutional amendment or even legislative action.

The Secretary of State voter education guides is one of those.

“I feel strongly about the need to get the public informed,” Kelly said. “A full third of voters skip the judges altogether. We can’t presume they don’t care. If they don’t know the candidates, can you blame them for not voting for them? …

“The public is entitled to know things like if a judge is on the bench on time, or if he or she is harsh on the people in their courtrooms.”

Another recommendation that would be easily implemented is the commission to screen candidates for appointment to fill vacant supreme court vacancies.

“That would protect the governor from pressure from cronies,” she said. “And it would be possible for the public to know what’s going on.

As to whether or not any of the recommendations will get any traction, Kelly said, “We’re not Pollyannas here. If the system was going to correct itself it would have.”

But she’s hopeful because the one thing that the task force agreed on unanimously is that the judicial selection system is flawed.

“We may have disagreed on what those flaws are, but we all agreed the system has its flaws,” Kelly said

The Detroit Free Press has a good opinion piece on the constitutional spat between Lansing Democrats and Republicans who have taken their battle to the Court of Appeals over immediate effect of some controversial legislation.

The Freep takes Republicans to task for getting a pretty basic elementary school algebra problem wrong: The state constitution requires a two-thirds vote for a bill to get immediate effect. And it’s pretty clear and plain language that spells out the requirement.

But the party has a 63-47 majority, which has been deemed good enough on several occasions.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that 22nd District Court Chief Judge Sylvia James has been found guilty of misusing public funds.

Retired Washtenaw County Judge Ann Mattson was appointed special master over the case. She ruled that James had “demonstrated ‘a lack of respect for the law’ by lying to the commission and misappropriating funds,” according to the Freep.

You’d think we’d have figured this out by now, but a wage gap between men and women still exists, and among some groups of workers it’s pretty deep. And since we haven’t yet solved the problem, my hopes are not particularly high that my contemporaries — the middle-aged crowd — hold the answers to closing the gap.

But is it possible that my teenage son’s contemporaries can figure it out? My instinct was to quickly conclude, “Oh no. On any given day, about a third of the kids in my son’s high school haven’t even figured out that they’re walking around with their flies open.” But, and it hurts me to admit this, I might be wrong. At least the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) thinks I might be wrong.

Here’s the state of the current problem: Last week, U.S. News cited a study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research that “among the 20 most popular occupations for women workers, they only out-earn men in one field: bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks.”

Further, though 96 percent of secretaries and administrative assistants are women, those women only earn about 86 percent of what men earn, according to the story.

Often, the gap is created by societal norms, such as the division of duties when it comes to child rearing or caring for sick family members, or maintaining a household, which often are still considered primarily women’s work.

The disparity is even greater among low-wage workers and some minority groups. The story says that women overall earn $10,800 less per year than men. But African American women earn $19,600 less, and Latinas earn $23,900 less.

But here’s the possible solution: teenagers. To try to figure out why the gap is still larger than we’d like, and how to close it, the EEOC is asking young people to weigh in.

Tomorrow, the EEOC is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Take your Child to Work Day by inviting teenagers to its Denver Field Office to participate in a dialogue for solutions on how to bridge the gender wage gap in America.

According to the EEOC, suggestions from this forum will be sent to the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force in Washington, D.C.

The reason the teenagers may hold the keys to solving the problem is that they are an unbiased group, said Denver EEOC Field Director Nancy Sienko.

She might be right about that. Not only are teenagers mostly untarnished by many of life’s experiences (think: child-rearing, dealing with serious illness, and meeting the responsibility of making ends meet in a recession), but among young people, women have now for the first time surpassed men in how much value they place on earning a lot of money.

An April 23 story on The Job Mouse website reported that young women value high-paying careers more than their male counterparts.

The story says that when asked if career is high on their list of life priorities, 66 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 34 said yes. That number has been growing, according to the story.

But the key to true equality has often been thought to lie with the men. When young men’s priorities — about work and career, child rearing and housekeeping — match those of women, then household responsibilities and wage earning will start to look more balanced between the sexes.

The Job Mouse reported that 59 percent of young men, when asked about life priorities, answered that career is high on the list.

So my mother’s generation opened the doors, mine walked through them and now view work outside the home as a necessity, and perhaps my teenage son’s generation will be the one that finally figures it all out. Let’s hope so.

A husband is upset after finding a photo of a nearly nude man on his wife’s cell phone. She says the photo came from her boss? What does she do for a living? She’s a court bailiff. Who’s her boss? Detroit 3rd Circuit Judge Wade McCree.

Fox 2’s Charlie LeDuff shows the photo to Judge McCree. The Judge seems quite proud of it. Play the video to get the full report and to hear an interesting reaction from the Judge.

[Where else but Fox 2 Detroit?]

The video of Charlie Leduff’s report is something to see. Unfortunately, we can’t embed it, but clicking on the link will take you there.

The highlights? The photo showed Judge McCree shirtless from the waist up. He seemed not the least bit embarrassed that the photo was released. After all, he swims a mile a day at the YMCA. The photo was sent to Fox 2 by the husband of a court employee who had the photo on her phone. The husband is apparently Darth Vader.

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Since 1986, Michigan Lawyers Weekly has been keeping lawyers across the state up-to-date. Here on our blog, Michigan Lawyer, look for opinions and discussions about law-related topics of interest to lawyers and laypersons alike.